Becoming a Boulderer

Last winter Alaskan native and Patagonia ambassador, Kate Rutherford, visited South Africa along with Alex Megos, and photographer Ken Etzel to try her hand at bouldering in Rocklands. Here is what she had to say about it;

" As a younger climber I was totally committed to big long routes, often in the mountains and often involving a lot of suffering. The beauty of each place is what got me there, and the partnerships kept me there. I wanted to be in those big landscapes, sleeping on the wall, scoured by the wind, squeezing into cracks, standing on top and sharing those experiences with special people. To go bouldering seemed not only silly—you spend so much time on just one little part of the landscape—but also dangerous. Risking a broken ankle and jeopardizing a future big alpine objective was not justifiable to me.